El Nino Rey Dental Mission Trip Insurgentes Mexico

El Nino Rey Dental Mission Trip, January 4-11, Insurgentes, Mexico
Earlier this year, five of us (Kathy O’Connor, Jon Monroe, Elena Monroe, Mike Reilly, and Jon Grote) traveled with parishioners from St. Norbert’s to Insurgentes, Mexico as part of the El Nino Rey dental mission for an intense four day clinic. Ably led by Fr. Matt Foley and veteran trip leader/hygienist Nancy McGovern, we cleaned the teeth, drilled/filled cavities, removed infected teeth, and repaired dental issues of hundreds of local patients, walking to and working in a clinic we set up in the parish elementary school.
Two evenings after clinic, Fr. Matt preached homilies about epiphany and about feeding the masses, which were very reflective of our experience. While dentistry in our area feels sterile and objective to me, our work in Mexico changed my perception to an intensely human and intimate one, where masses of very young to very old patients walked sometimes long distances to us “strangers,” opened their mouths, and fully trusted us to do our best work on their teeth. I was particularly taken by a tiny little girl who had two infected teeth extracted, but didn’t cry from the anesthetic injections or extractions, then thanked me and Mike the dentist, and gave us both a hug. What noble people these are! I’m very thankful that our small El Nino Rey team of dentists and volunteers could help so many to alleviate issues that would otherwise affect them for their entire lives.

Jonathan Grote